Can someone explain what's the culture of Ramadan about ?

I've been hearing people bring it up in the fitness community lately, but I'm not for sure what it is.

You don't eat stuff during the day and then God likes you better.

So its basically a different eating routine?

@falserelic: I practice it but this wiki article will explain it better then i do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

It's a muslim tradition and it's one of the five pillars of the Islam.

We fast from about two hours before sunrise to sunset. No eating or drinking is allowed. Depending on your location on the globe and the day of the year, it can be as short as 9 hours of fasting to a whopping 18 hours of no eating and drinking. In my location, I fast about 17 hours. It's not only being devoid of food and water, we are also not allowed to have sex or conduct other sexual affections towards each other during the daytime, to help clear the mind of impure thoughts and actions. This is done throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

It can be hard to fast, those that are too weak or frail, children, menstruating women, pregnant women, weaning women and people needing continuous medication or are otherwise sick are exempt from fasting. The goal is not to punish yourself or to deteriorate your health.

The goal of our fasting is to show empathy to those having to suffer hunger, famine and thirst each day, by experiencing it ourselves. For us it's imperative we donate money to charity to help those poor people. Fasting also a way of cleaning ones body by depleting energy reserves in which (lipofilic) toxins might have accumulated. But most of all, it gives a feeling of soberness and solidarity. We gather all around the table when sun sets and start eating and drinking again. It's an spiritual month for us in which fasting is just part of a bigger picture.

@falserelic: i think its a pink floyd bootleg

Wow, I've fasted all through last year, and I didn't know nothing about Ramadan until now. Thanks for the clarification. Now I see why some fitness channels practice Ramadan.

I've met people from Pakistan and Bangladesh who are Muslim. For about a month they don't eat or drink while the sun is up.

Most of the ones I've met get up around midnight and have a big meal with their family that they cooked during the day. For them it's like a month long Christmas season / event.

Some people will eat or drink if they are sick, etc. Also, men who work long hours will be the first to say "yeah, no thanks I do physical labor" (although other Muslims may give them grief for this).

It can be a pain in the ass if you have a school or something with a bunch of people observing Ramadan - poor attendance, withdrawing for a month, showing up late (see above: getting up for a feast in the middle of the night.)

Anyway, I'm not religious but come in contact with plenty of people who are. I try not to bring certain subjects up.

Yeah fasting isn't for everybody and it can be rough. When I first started water fasting last year it took time for me to get use to it. There was days when I felt weak and had strong headaches.

I think the people bringing up Ramadan in fitness topics and conversations is because they're complaining that fasting is impeding their workouts. I can't work out due to Ramadan, the late times at which we eat and the heat stroke over here aren't helping either.

Why would you water-fast though? To lose weight in water?

At the time when I was 330 pounds I did Alternate Day fasting. It was a weight loss routine where I ate one day, and ate nothing for the next day except drink water. I used it as a tool to help me shed pounds, and discipline myself from craving foods. I've done it for a year, exercised and lost a shit ton of weight. Sense I'm 217 pounds now I don't do Alternate day fasting anymore, but more of a regular eating routine nowadays.

People have their own opinions about it, but it worked for me. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody though.

I had days in which I only drank water without any food, kept that going for weeks on end and ended up losing 15 lbs. That was terrible, going to sleep hungry.

Yeah, it can be a terrible feeling. Though sometimes it got worse when people cooked food on the day I was fasting. Usually I drink as much water as I can to knockout hunger pains, but at the sametime drinking way to much water can be bad. From what I've heard a person can get water intoxication, which almost kinda happened to me afew times.